Image: Reuters Berita 24 English - This week, a U.S. aircraft carrier will go to South Korea for the first time in about four years to take...
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| Image: Reuters |
South Korea's Navy said in a statement that the USS Ronald Reagan will arrive at a naval base in the southern port city of Busan on Friday.
"By doing joint drills, the navies of the two countries hope to improve their military readiness and show that the South Korea-U.S. alliance is committed to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula," said the statement.
North Korea has said that past U.S. military deployments and joint drills were practise for war and proof that Washington and Seoul have an unfriendly policy.
This will be the first time an American aircraft carrier has been to South Korea since 2018. In that year, the allies cut back on a lot of their military activities together as they tried to talk to North Korea diplomatically.
The COVID-19 pandemic also cut back on drills until this year, when South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol resumed many joint exercises and other shows of military power as a warning to North Korea, which earlier this year did a record number of missile tests after talks failed to convince it to stop making nuclear weapons and missiles.
Observers also say that Pyongyang seems to be getting ready to test nuclear weapons again for the first time since 2017.
For the first time since 2017, the USS Ronald Reagan went to the waters between South Korea and Japan in April. There, it worked with Japanese forces to do joint drills. This time, the carrier's strike group will train with forces from South Korea.
North Korea's first-use nuclear doctrine, which was revealed this month, was called "escalatory and destabilising" by the U.S. and South Korea on Friday. Washington also promised to keep deploying and training strategic assets to deter Pyongyang and respond to it.
